CPLP Council of Ministers prepares São Tomé summit

2023-08-26 01:25:11

The heads of Portuguese-speaking diplomacy debated in São Tomé the possibility of increasing the quotas of CPLP member countries and the entry of Paraguay as an observer member. On the table are also proposals on possible candidacies to succeed São Tomé and Príncipe in the presidency of the organization, in 2025.

This Sunday, during the 14th conference of CPLP Heads of State and Government, São Tomé and Príncipe will chair the organization in turn for two years.

This Friday’s Council of Ministers also includes the possibility of strengthening the executive secretariat, with more autonomy and funds to promote cooperation actions. The leaders will also approve the summit’s final declaration.

The meeting is chaired by Gareth Guadalupe, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Communities of São Tomé and Príncipe, who took office less than a month ago, after his predecessor, Alberto Pereira, was dismissed for criticizing Portugal and Angola on teaching Portuguese in Equatorial Guinea. The promotion of the Portuguese language in Equatorial Guinea was one of the conditions for this country’s accession to the CPLP in 2014. A membership that still raises criticism today given the recurring allegations of repression and persecution of activists and the fact that the abolition of the death penalty not yet inscribed in the Constitution, although it is already included in the Penal Code.

In an interview with the Lusa news agency, the Sao Tome prime minister, Patrice Trovoada, defended that Equatorial Guinea is a full member state of the CPLP and has the same right to assume the presidency of the organisation. Patrice Trovoada said that, in alphabetical order, Guinea-Bissau should assume the next presidency of the CPLP, succeeding São Tomé and Príncipe, but if this country “wants to let its place go”, Equatorial Guinea “has the same rights as any other [Estado] to assume” the next presidency of the Portuguese-speaking organization.

At the Luanda summit in 2021, Bissau expressed interest in succeeding Angola in the presidency, and the decision was postponed, with São Tomé and Príncipe the chosen country. Last month, the Guinean President, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, admitted to abdicating the rotating presidency of the CPLP and choosing to preside over the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).

The Sao Tome presidency of the CPLP will prioritize funding for entrepreneurship and education, as well as the challenges of housing and youth mobility, Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada also announced.